Those who are able and willing to work should have a job: Erin Tañada

“Everyone who can and is willing to work should have a job. If we look around us, there is so much work to be done: Ensure food for every Filipino, home for every family, clothes and shoes for everyone; someone to look after young children, to teach the youth, to care for the sick; ensure clean water for drinking, cooking, and bathing; clean air; electricity, Internet, transportation; and so much more.”

“All these things need work and workers. That’s why the government needs to invest in these rights because government has the duty to provide for them as well as the opportunity to realize them.

“Abroad, OFWs are employers’ favorite because they’re hard-working, resourceful, and have initiative. We need to replicate here in the Philippines the reason why they leave for work abroad: incomes that allow for a life a dignity for the family.”

This was the statement of Erin Tañada, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the reported increase of adult joblessness from the survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) in the third quarter of this year.

SWS just released the results of its survey done on 15-23 September 2018. The results show that one out of five adult Filipinos is without a job. Included in this lot are those who were laid off from their jobs, companies have closed, contractual workers who were not renewed, voluntarily left their jobs, and those who haven’t worked before.